fort's 57 gallon Rimless Reef Build

[fort384]

Yes, the aqua lifter had no trouble pumping up an over to the return section of the sump. I am pleased with it, especially at the cost.

[mfdrookie516]

Wow... nice progress!

[fort384]

Thanks Jon.

Rock is definitely on the way and is to be delivered Saturday. No idea if the sand is shipped or not as I guess it is coming via USPS.

Might be putting water in as soon as Saturday night.

Just having my RO tanks and ATO reservoir are somehow not very satisfying when it is sitting next to this tank...

[cmor1701d]

OK, when can you come to NJ and make my tank wiring look so neat?

I run my LEDS at 100% for the 20k setting, using the photo period I mentioned. That's about as close as you can get to near equatorial daylight which is where most of the sps corals originate from. It's really as much as a 13 1/2 hour sunlight photo period in the wild.

Do you have the option of setting the light Kelvin and the intensity?

[fort384]

No, i cannot manually set the K value. But I can independently set the intensity of the whites and blues. Each pod has 16 white and 8 blue diodes, so I would guess intensity wise, 50% white = 100% blue, though I am not even sure how or if that translates. I am used to dealing with a single color temp bulb at far less intensity, even on my high light planted tanks.

[mfdrookie516]

I'm kind of thinking you're going to be like me and not like a really blue tank. Seems like it just washes everything out. I'd say rather than 50/50, do more like 60/40 or 65/35. At least you have some time to play with it to find what you like best.

[fort384]

So is a 12 hour photo period pretty standard for a reef tank? I could do something similar to Cmor and have a 2 hour ramp up period, an 8 hour max period, and 2 hour ramp down. Then I just need to figure out what the max intensity of the blues and whites should be. I really feel like I am going to cook any coral if I have these things at 100%.

I will also have my lunar synced moon lights going at night of course

Cmor, where's the best place to pickup a PO4 meter?

[Ibrahim]

Originally Posted by fort384

So is a 12 hour photo period pretty standard for a reef tank? I could do something similar to Cmor and have a 2 hour ramp up period, an 8 hour max period, and 2 hour ramp down. Then I just need to figure out what the max intensity of the blues and whites should be. I really feel like I am going to cook any coral if I have these things at 100%.

I will also have my lunar synced moon lights going at night of course

Cmor, where's the best place to pickup a PO4 meter?

Hanna checkers are pretty accurate. I believe drsfostersmith and BRS carry them. And ramping up and down will also work great. Even if you have the lights on for 8 hours a day, it would be enough but it would be better for it to be on for 12 hours or 2 hour ramp up, 8 hour on, 2 hour ramp down.

[Ziggy953]

I never ran my lighting more than 10 hours on my reef system. I agree that in the wild it can be as much as 12-14 hours however we are talking about closed systems and we are far more susceptible to algae growth with extended photo periods. I would suggest going with a shorter period and as far as intensity is concerned go with what looks most appealing to you.

[cmor1701d]

Ibriham pointed you in the right direction. Both are sponsors and the price ($49.99) is pretty standard everywhere. Get additional reagent packets (at least the box of 25) as it only comes with 6.

[fort384]

Ok great. I will pick one up from BRS. Going to have to make an order there soon anyway.

I got the itch to fill the sump up tonight. Glad I did. One of the seams had a small leak (my installed baffle seams, not the tank seams). I cleaned it out and dried it off, and threw some more silicon on it. All the other seams seem to be holding.

[TLTGF]

Carey is starting up another BRS group buy pretty soon here so you should get in on that for sure.

[scottayy]

just following along

[fort384]

So can someone clarify this for me? Do I need to treat my 5 stage RODI water with prime before adding to my ATO a/o doing water changes? I have seen it both ways. No chloramines in my tap water btw.

[NyteGTI]

no you don't the RO part of the filter removes the chlorine/chloramine, ammonia, nitrites, & nitrates & the DI part removes any TDS you may have

[cmor1701d]

OK, so you start with a 10 micron Sediment filter to get the big stuff. Follow that with a 5 micron Charcoal to remove smaller sediment and chlorine/chloramines and organic matter. Follow that by a 1 micron Charcoal filter before the DI stage. No need for any type of prefilter or chemical. The 5 stages are what you use to strip the water of impurities.

From the AirWaterIce site....

"Get a ten micron sediment filter for your first stage. Then obtain a good quality five micron carbon block, acid washed filter for the second stage. The ten micron filter has removed all of the dirt and sediment over ten microns from the water which protects the five micron filter. Now, all the five micron filter has to remove is sediment between 5 and 10 micron. In the third stage get a quality one micron carbon filter or a sediment filter if you have well water. You have now accomplished filtration down to one micron, five times the manufactures requirements. You have not lost a great deal of pressure and the filter can now provide you full service. So to recap; the ten protects the five, the five protects the one, and the one micron exceeds the requirement to protect the membrane by a factor of five, so your membrane sees only one micron sediment... one fifth the requirement.

Protected by a 10-to-1 micron array, the membrane is free to go about the task of removing bacteria, virus, salt, ions and dissolved metals (TDS). The filters alone have no impact on the TDS and should never be relied on to remove bacteria. Ions and bacteria are best left to the membrane. After the work done by the pre-filters and membrane, your water is very pure. The final stage is DI -- A typical mixed bed DI cartridge is capable of reducing the TDS to zero (0). "

[Wy Renegade]

Originally Posted by TLTGF

.025 or .026will work. Also just mix for a long time. I e heard 6 hours if using a powerhead or pump to mix and twelve hours if you just use a manual stir here and there. Mine sits for 24 hour minimum just to be sure and i use a 750 koralia to mix

What is important is that you mix until all the salt is disolved. Mixing for 24 hours (the common practice), will help with heating water and addressing some of the gas issues involved with mixing salt, but isn't truly necessary prior to using. This is important to know in the event you ever have to do a emergency water change - mix till all the salt dissolves and you are good to go. Never dump unmixed salt into the tank.

Originally Posted by fort384

So can someone clarify this for me? Do I need to treat my 5 stage RODI water with prime before adding to my ATO a/o doing water changes? I have seen it both ways. No chloramines in my tap water btw.

As stated above, no pretreatment of RO/DI water is required, tis what the RO/DI is for .

Nice job on the build - coming along very nicely.

[fort384]

Thanks Randy! I had more than 1 person tell me I still needed to treat my RODI water with Prime and I didn't get it.

I filled the sump up tonight... all the baffles seem fine. A couple of issues:

My aqualifter feed line to the sump keeps dripping, even after I shut the aqualifter off. I would think there would be a valve or something in the pump itself, but maybe not? Can the aqualift continue to feed through and siphon water out of my ATO reservoir even in the off position, or am I just seeing what's left in output line dripping into the sump do you think? I suppose I could try setting the aqualifter on the floor behind the reservoir instead of on top of it, so that the pump is lower than the output line in the sump.

I fired my skimmer up. It seems to be working, but the air snorkel tube is noisy as it sucks in air. I suppose I gotta find a muffler to put on it something. Jonathan warned me about this I guess.

The return pump seems to work extremely well. I turned it on for about 3 seconds and the water was gushing out of the returns at the top of the tank. It looks to me like I will definitely have to restrict the outflow of it to match my drain line.

I also put the vortechs on the side of the sump and fired them up just to test that they are working. Wow, are they powerful (especially when confined to my little ~5 gallon fuge area).

Rock is still supposed to be delivered tomorrow. No word yet on sand, and it didn't show up today. I am hoping I can fill this bad boy up tomorrow (or at least start to filll; it will take a couple of days to make all the water).

I am going to mix the salt in the tank after I confirm there are no leaks. Also, going to take my return stand pipe off and drill a couple extra small diameter holes as backups to the siphon break that is on the 90.

[mfdrookie516]

Hmm... mine doesn't drip. I have it above my ato reservoir to prevent it from siphoning (as it will). Maybe you need to lift your line up some? is that possible? If the output is higher than the reservoir, it can't siphon. Not sure if that's possible on your tank. Maybe stick a short piece of pvc down in to the water and have it stick up higher than your reservoir... then have the air line tubing run in to it (with room to get air so it doesn't siphon)... would keep noise down and siphon away.

[fort384]

Here is a pic of my sump holding water. Yay! Oh the things us aquarium people get excited about...